dagblog - Comments for "Did Cheney and the Decider misunderestimate assurances from the Saudis? And how bad was it?"

Thanks, AA. I assume the

erica20 — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:36:49 +0000

In reply to And at the very same time:

Thanks, AA. I assume the discussion with/of the cleric is the Muslim equivalent of debate over what a "true" Christian might do?

And at the very same time:

artappraiser — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:09:42 +0000

In reply to Saudi Arabia now hosts our

And at the very same time: Major Saudi cleric defends Bin Laden on Al- Jazeera, Al-Arabiya News, 08 Feb.

(Take the above and combine it with this: this is the way it has always been, mho.)

Saudi Arabia now hosts our

artappraiser — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 07:06:44 +0000

In reply to Did Cheney and the Decider misunderestimate assurances from the Saudis? And how bad was it?

Saudi Arabia now hosts our drone base for attacks on AQAP, and they add support with their own air force; the hit on Al-Awlaki came from there. (Arabist.net, Feb. 7)

Thanks, moat. I had seen this

artappraiser — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 04:08:24 +0000

In reply to This is a difficult terrain

Thanks, moat. I had seen this post and it bothered me about what was implied and I was going to say something similar, but then I forgot all about it.

To this day I don't get what a lot of 9/11 conspiracists dislike about the official 9/11 report.(It's not like it has all the hallmarks of a government coverup, a basic synopsis would be more like: "government security fucked up royally, you're pitiful, you should be ashamed."

Anyhew, if one goes to the 9/11 Report Chapter 8, titled The System Was Blinking Red,

http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report_Ch8.pdf

one can read all about how there were a lot of indications in the months prior to 9/11 that there would be an attack on Saudi Arabia, too, it looked more likely that they would be hit than the US. (Do I need to mention the possibilities of where such blinking-red-light intel might have been coming from? Like the Saudi Arabian government, mebbe? Because like you implied, "Al Qaeda" was their enemy before they were ours?)

I might add that the Saudi royal family is huge, and has, like any other family of thousands, black sheep, some who chaffe at what their dear leader decides is the right and true path to Islam, and some of those might support and even fund certain groups or actors contrary to the political diktats of their dear leader.

This is a difficult terrain

moat — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 23:58:11 +0000

In reply to Did Cheney and the Decider misunderestimate assurances from the Saudis? And how bad was it?

This is a difficult terrain to traverse.

Prior to the question of what deals the neocons thought they had secured is the degree of separation between Al Qaeda and the Saudi Royal House.

Al Qaeda set up their shop by declaring the house of Saud to be dogs owned by western powers. Saudi Arabia is presently fighting a war against self-identified members of Al Qaeda in Yemen. If the Saudi house is secretly colluding with its opposition, that is bigger news than figuring out what the Bushes thought they had bought by way of security.

What the Bushes thought is important, of course. But what the actual relationships are between the people we have sent our forces to "sort" out is an issue that doesn't require that we all die before we know the truth. I would like to cite the Powell doctrine that he gave up on after citing it:

What is the operation supposed to achieve and when do we leave afterwards? Does the present operation(s) appear to be carrying out its expressed objectives?

The language of conspiracy is a natural concomitant to the failure to do things that match up with how one talks about them in real time.

And then we wonder why people

Michael Maiello — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:27:46 +0000

In reply to That's what my funny, smart,

And then we wonder why people indulge in conspiracy theories.

That's what my funny, smart,

erica20 — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 05:06:18 +0000

In reply to This is stuff that will all

That's what my funny, smart, rough-around-the-edges fella says, too. It's daunting to know that this kind of power is so entrenched that pretty much no amount of political churn or journalistic whodunitry can touch it.

This is stuff that will all

Michael Maiello — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 01:20:25 +0000

In reply to Did Cheney and the Decider misunderestimate assurances from the Saudis? And how bad was it?

This is stuff that will all be revealed a generation or two from now. By the time we get the truth about the deals cut with the House of Saud, we'll be dealing with the after effects of other murderers and extremists that we've armed in the name of expediency. It's a sad tale, too often repeated in our history.